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Nscale

Staff Cloud Native Software Engineer

Nscale is hiring a Staff Cloud Native Software Engineer for a remote role open to applicants in United States. It pays $220k-$265k a year and Level rates it ; you can apply on Nscale.

Level's read on this job

  • On Level's scale, this software engineer role is Builds AI ●●●●: the job is building AI systems.
  • The listed pay starts 32% above the typical software engineer posting on Level.
  • The posting lists this role as remote.
  • Tools and skills the posting cites include Kubernetes, Docker and Terraform.
  • Level lists 297 other open roles at Nscale.

AI in this role

Staff Cloud Native Software Engineer building Kubernetes platforms and integrations for GPU-backed AI infrastructure.

KubernetesDockerTerraformPrometheus
cloud-nativeinfrastructuregpu-clouddistributed-systemsplatform-engineering

About Nscale

Nscale is the GPU cloud engineered for AI. We provide cost-effective, high-performance infrastructure for AI start-ups and large enterprise customers. Nscale enables AI-focused companies to achieve superior results by reducing the complexity of AI development. Our GPU cloud bolsters technical capabilities and directly supports strategic business outcomes, including cost management, rapid innovation, and environmental responsibility.

We thrive on a culture of relentless innovation, ownership, and accountability, where every team member takes pride in their work and drives it with excellence and urgency. As an Nscaler, you’ll build trust through openness and transparency, where everyone is inspired to do their best work. If you join our team, you’ll be contributing to building the technology that powers the future.

About the Role

We're hiring a Staff Cloud Native Software Engineer to build, operate, and improve the cloud-native software integrations that connect AI applications and networking components at scale.

In this software engineering role, you'll work on shared Kubernetes-based platforms, deployment patterns, observability foundations, infrastructure architecture, and operational tooling that help internal teams run services safely and efficiently on GPU-backed infrastructure. You'll partner closely with platform engineering, infrastructure, and product teams to ensure capabilities meet real developer and operational needs.

This role is important to the reliability, scalability, and usability of Nscale's software integrations. As a Staff engineer, you'll take ownership of significant components and set technical direction across teams, deliver complex technical work independently, and raise the quality of operations and engineering through practical improvements, sound technical judgement, and mentoring.

What You’ll Do

Cloud Native Software Engineering

  • Design, build, and operate Kubernetes-native software — controllers, operators, custom resources (CRDs), and admission webhooks — that connects AI applications with core networking components on GPU-backed infrastructure.
  • Extend Kubernetes control-plane capabilities to support AI workload requirements, including network policy controllers, CNI/service-mesh integrations, and resource/scheduling extensions.
  • Own significant components end-to-end and set the technical direction for how they're designed, deployed, and operated across the team.
  • Build reconciliation loops, informers, and client-go–based tooling that keep infrastructure state consistent between the API server, networking systems, and AI runtime components.
  • Develop operational tooling and automation that make Kubernetes-native services easier for internal teams to deploy, run, and support.

Infrastructure Architecture, Reliability & Observability

  • Drive infrastructure architecture decisions around how AI applications and networking components integrate across the platform, weighing trade-offs at a cross-team level.
  • Build observability foundations for controller and operator software — metrics, structured events, tracing, and status reporting surfaced through the Kubernetes API and platform dashboards.
  • Design systems that degrade gracefully and self-heal, using controller patterns (reconciliation, backoff, status conditions) to reduce manual intervention.
  • Debug and resolve complex issues spanning the Kubernetes control plane, networking (CNI, service mesh, kube-proxy/eBPF datapaths), and workload runtime behavior on GPU-backed infrastructure.
  • Define standards for safe rollout of controller and platform changes, including versioning, compatibility, and staged deployment.

Team Technical Leadership

  • Set technical direction for how the team builds Kubernetes-native software, establishing patterns for controller design, CRD schema evolution, and testing strategy.
  • Lead design discussions and code reviews, holding a high bar for Kubernetes API conventions and idiomatic client-go usage.
  • Partner with platform engineering, infrastructure, and product teams to translate real developer and operational needs into clean CRDs, APIs, and controller-managed abstractions.
  • Define reusable patterns, shared libraries, and scaffolding that let other teams build correctly on the platform without reinventing integration logic.
  • Mentor engineers in Kubernetes internals, controller-runtime patterns, and sound operational judgement.

KPIs

  • Reliability, scalability, and usability of AI infrastructure–networking software integrations
  • Correctness and maintainability of Kubernetes controllers and operators in production
  • Reduction in manual operational effort and config drift across supported components
  • Adoption of shared patterns/frameworks and effectiveness of observability tooling across teams

Who You are

  • At least 8 years of experience in production-level software development.
  • Deep hands-on experience building and operating Kubernetes-native software: custom controllers, operators, CRDs, or admission webhooks — using controller-runtime, client-go, or equivalent.
  • Strong understanding of Kubernetes internals: the API server, informer/lister patterns, reconciliation loops, and the object model.
  • Strong networking fundamentals — CNI, service mesh, kube-proxy/eBPF datapaths, DNS, load balancing — and experience building software that integrates with these systems.
  • Proficiency in Go (strongly preferred) or a similar language, with a track record of shipping well-tested, production-quality code at scale.
  • Experience with observability practices — metrics, tracing, structured logging — built into software rather than added afterward.
  • Comfortable owning components independently end-to-end, from design through operation, while setting direction for adjacent teams.
  • Experience with or strong interest in GPU-backed infrastructure and AI workload patterns is a plus.
  • Track record of leading technical design at a staff level and mentoring engineers through practical technical guidance.



The range below reflects the base salary for the position. Actual compensation may vary based on job-related factors such as skill set, experience, education, and location. In addition to base salary, this role may be eligible for bonus, equity, and/or commission programs. Nscale may offer a competitive benefits package including medical, dental, vision, flexible paid time off, parental leave, and retirement plan participation.

Salary Range$220,000—$265,000 USD

For information on how Nscale handles candidate personal data, please see our Employee & Candidate Privacy Notice: Here.

Nscale does not accept unsolicited candidate submissions from recruitment agencies.

How we rate this

Staff Cloud Native Software Engineer at Nscale rates 80 out of 100 for how much of the daily work is AI. That makes it Builds AI (AI Level 4 of 4). The level is about AI in the job, not seniority.

Classification

Builds AI. The job is building AI systems.

  1. ●●●● Builds AI80 to 100
  2. ●●●○ Works on AI60 to 79
  3. ●●○○ Uses AI40 to 59
  4. ●○○○ Little AI0 to 39

Levels come from how often the tools, models and workflows of the role are named in the posting itself. Read the description and count the AI tools, models and workflows it names.

Prepare for this job

Built from this posting and from similar jobs on Level.

Skills and AI tools this role asks for

Cloud NativeInfrastructureGPU CloudDistributed SystemsPlatform EngineeringKubernetesDockerTerraform

Also common in software engineer jobs at this level

Pay

This job starts at
$220k
Typical software engineer job
$167k

This posting starts 32% above the typical software engineer job. See software engineer jobs

Questions you could be asked

  1. Tell me about a project where cloud native was part of your work. What did you do?
  2. Tell me about a project where infrastructure was part of your work. What did you do?
  3. Tell me about a project where gpu cloud was part of your work. What did you do?
  4. Tell me about a project where distributed systems was part of your work. What did you do?
  5. Tell me about a project where platform engineering was part of your work. What did you do?

Adapt your resume

  • List these exact terms on your resume: Cloud Native, Infrastructure, GPU Cloud, Distributed Systems, and Platform Engineering. An applicant tracking system matches the wording, not the idea.
  • Attach one line of real, concrete experience to at least one of them. A tool named with nothing behind it rarely survives a human read.
  • Lead with what you built, trained or shipped. This role is judged on the AI system itself, not the tools around it.

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